Muli, Josephine Nthenya2024-09-272024-09-272024-06https://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/28943Department Of Hospitality And Tourism Management A Thesis Submitted In Partial Fulfilment Of The Requirements For The Award Of The Degree Of Master Of Science In Hospitality Management In The School Of Business, Economics And Tourism Of Kenyatta University, June 2024. Supervisors 1. Rahab Mugambi 2. Jane BitokMillennials are quickly emerging as the hospitality industry's primary target market. Players in this industry are often faced with stiff competition and other uncertainties, with each hotel brand trying to scramble for the attention of this cohort. Customer loyalty is among the most long-term resources of the hotel, while post purchase behaviour can be developed as a long-term common valuable relationship with hotel guests. This investigation aimed to evaluate the influence of brand experience and post purchase behaviour of millennial guest of classified hotel brands in Nairobi City County, Kenya. There is scanty literature on millennial guests and their brand experience and post purchase behaviour of classified hotel brands in Kenya. This study sought to fill the knowledge gap in this area. The research was conducted among millennials in Nairobi City County. An embedded mixed-method research design was applied to collect quantitative and qualitative data from millennial guests born from 1982-2002. Convenience sampling was used to select millennial respondents from each hotel category, while purposive sampling was used to collect supplementary information from the managers. A sample size of 384 respondents was obtained from the possible 10,000 target population of millennial guests in classified hotels in Nairobi City County. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data from millennial hotel guests and front office and restaurant managers. A pretest of the questionnaire and interview was conducted to evaluate their reliability and validity for the current research. Quantitative data analysis with Stastical Package for Social Sciences v.29 comprised descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations) and inferential statistics (multiple linear regression). Hierarchical linear regression analyses were performed to test the moderating role of each socio-demographic characteristic on the influence of hotel brand experience on the post-purchase behaviour of millennial guests. Thematic analysis with NVivo was applied to analyse data collected from key informants. The findings revealed significant positive relationships between facets of hotel brand experiences comprising price (r = 0.563, p < 0.001), sensory (r = 0.784, p < 0.001), affective (r = 0.712, p < 0.001), behavioural (r = 0.613, p < 0.001) and ambience (r = 0.796, p < 0.001) had a statistically significant positive relationship on hotel brand experience and post-purchase behaviour of millennial guests. Additionally, gender, age, education, income, and hotel star rating had significant moderating effects on the influence of hotel brand experience on the post-purchase behaviour of millennial guests. The study recommends that managers of classified hotels consider the current research results when developing brand experience strategies to boost future business among guests of the dynamic millennial generation.enThesis